Samsung Galaxy S3 and S3 Mini won’t get Kitkat update: Samsung

Yesterday, a document was leaked mentioning the Samsung devices that will be getting Android Kitkat update. What amused most of us was that Samsung Galaxy S3 was not slotted to receive the Kitkat update. Today, the company itself has issue an official statement stating that this device along with its another sibling Galaxy S3 mini won’t receive the Kitkat update.

No Kitkat for Samsung Galaxy S3

The company has said that these devices are not capable of running Android 4.4 Kitkat and therefore it is in the interest of consumers not to release the Kitkat update. There are certain performance measures that are taken into consideration while testing the update. It includes multi-tasking capabilities, display quality, RAM usage and other hardware requirements. According to the statement from Samsung, both these devices come up with the 1 GB of RAM which doesn’t allow them to run Kitkat smoothly. However, while releasing the Kitkat update Google did mention that this update is aimed at smoothening the user experience with the 512 MB RAM devices. It is contradictory to see such reason from the well known company when we all know that Kitkat can run smoothly on 1 GB RAM devices.

Here is the official statement from the Samsung

In order to facilitate an effective upgrade on the Google platform, various hardware performances such as the memory (RAM, ROM, etc.), multi-tasking capabilities, and display must meet certain technical expectations. The Galaxy S3 and S3 mini 3G versions come equipped with 1GB RAM, which does not allow them to effectively support the platform upgrade. As a result of the Galaxy S3 and S3 mini 3G versions’ hardware limitation, they cannot effectively support the platform upgrade while continuing to provide the best consumer experience. Samsung has decided not to roll-out the KitKat upgrade to Galaxy S3 and S3 mini 3G versions, and the KitKat upgrade will be available to the Galaxy S3 LTE version as the device’s 2GB RAM is enough to support the platform upgrade.

In another news, a list of devices that are going to get the Kitkat update has been leaked. Here’s the picture of the leaked document which does mention that the LTE version of the Galaxy S3 will receive the Kitkat update as it has 2GB of RAM. It also mentions the devices such as Galaxy Mega 5.8 and 6.3 being tested for the Kitkat update.